Is Liquid Network Compatible with Bitcoin Decentralized Mantra

I've been doing some research on Bitcoin L2s, besides Lightning, and came across the Liquid Network. From what I can tell, Liquid is a side chain that's touted as the premier Bitcoin L2 as it allows for 1 minute block times, confidential transactions, issuance of pegged assets, supports tokens, stable-coins, atomic swaps, and a few other features. That's all great, but the backbone of the network is a federation of large crypto businesses (exchanges, trading desks, etc.) that control block creation/signing and pegging assets into/out of the network.

Why does the Bitcoin community support such a L2 setup that has companies as the backbone of the side chain? (Honest question, I'm trying to learn and not troll.) Is it because Liquid is not meant for the average user and is mainly focused on facilitating high value transactions between big entities? If that's the case, then I guess it makes sense that only those large businesses can create blocks. I guess the Lightning Network is for everyone else and when decentralization and speed are important.

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